Watch: Interview with Softbank’S CEO, Masayoshi Son – How he invented the first electronic dictionary which was later sold to Sharp for $1.7 million

As part of our mission to encourage and help startup founders and entrepreneurs on their road to success, today we are starting a new series that will feature interviews with successful startup founders and visionaries. Today, we’re featuring an interview with Softbank’s CEO, Masayoshi Son, a Japanese business magnate and investor of Korean descent.

Son started his entrepreneur journey after he invented the first electronic dictionary, which he sold it to Sharp for $1.7 million. He later used the capital to start SoftBank. During the dotcom crash of 2000, he lost $70 billion of his investment before re-building to the point that he was able to buy Softbank from Vodafone and later acquire one of the US’s big three networks, Sprint.

Son was an early investor in internet firms. He invested $20 million stake into Alibaba in 1999 and owns 29.5% of Alibaba, which is worth around $108.7 billion as of 23rd October 2018. Son also invested in Yahoo in 1995. According to Forbes magazine, Son’s estimated net worth is US $23 billion and he is the richest man in Japan.

Below is an interview with Son and Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein. This episode of season three features SoftBank Group Corp. You can watch the full interview here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–dReMGY_WY